A surrejoinder is a legal response by the plaintiff to the rejoinder (the defendant’s reply to the plaintiff’s original response to the defendant’s answer), in the pretrial phase of a civil lawsuit. The surrejoinder gives the plaintiff a final opportunity to respond to the defendant’s arguments before the case moves forward, ensuring that all issues are thoroughly debated by both sides and that the court has a complete understanding of the case before proceeding to trial.
Procedurally, the plaintiff files a complaint first, and then the defendant files an answer in response to the complaint. Subsequently, the plaintiff files a reply to the defendant’s answer, perhaps introducing new evidence or arguments, if the court allows. The defendant then could file a rejoinder addressing the new points raised by the plaintiff in their reply. If new points and issues are brought up in the rejoinder, the court could allow the plaintiff to file a surrejoinder to address these points. Similar to rejoinder, while the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) does not explicitly mention a time frame for surrejoinder filing, the court usually specifies the time limit for filing at their discretion to ensure that the litigation process remains efficient and fair.
[Last updated in August of 2024 by the Wex Definitions Team]